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French Fishermen Call Off Dover-calais Blockade
Cross-channel ferry services remained disrupted today despite Dover-Calais routes being reopened after French fishermen suspended their blockade of Calais.

Sailings to Boulogne were impossible as protests continued at that port and there were delays on travel from Dover to Dunkirk as operators tried to clear the backlog of vehicles and passengers.

Ferry companies were waiting to see whether fishermen would accept �concessions by the French government or decide to resume direct action. P&O Ferries, whose business has been severely hit by the blockades, is planning to seek compensation from the French government � a process that can take up to three years � while hauliers said small firms already struggling for contracts in the recession would struggle to get recompense for delays that were no fault of their own.

P&O Ferries managed to move many hundreds of passengers across the Channel last night, exploiting the fishermen's brief suspension of the blockade at Calais. Services resumed this morning. NorfolkLine was running services to Dunkirk but not to timetable but LD Lines to Boulogne were again canceled.

The fishermen are protesting against EU quotas. One Calais protester, Pascal Hamy, 49, said: "There was some movement [from the government] yesterday evening but it is not enough for us. What we want to do is work. We're not guilty of causing the problem [for travelers]. The people guilty of that is the French government and Brussels."

British travellers frustrated by delays expressed delight at the lifting of the Calais blockade. Judith Blatch, from Sudbury, Suffolk, said: "We have some sympathy for the French fishermen because it is their livelihood but it wasn't doing the reputation of France any good. It is not good for British holidaymakers anyway because of the rate of the euro. With the fishermen blockading the ports, it does put you off France."

Chris Laming, director of communications at P&O, was asked on BBC's Radio 4 today whether government concessions would lead fishermen to blockade ports in future. "I think that's very likely � it's a pattern that we've seen repeated before. They simply roll over every time and give in and so that's what generally happens. People think: 'Well it worked that time , I'll come back and try again next time.'"

"There needs to be some kind of political solution to this. France has a legal obligation under the EU treaty to keep that border open for the free movement of goods

and people � and we would like the British government to put pressure on Europe to bring France to the table, to hammer out an agreement to keep the border at Calais open at all times."

Donald Armour, head of the international department at the Freight Transport Association, said it would be "really difficult to shift" the culture of protests in France, with the disruption estimated at costing hauliers �1m a day.

He said most transport firms were small, with between eight and 12 vehicles. "If you have two or three of your vehicles immobilized, 30-40% of your business tied up and totally knackered for three or four days, it must hit your contracts."

It was often difficult to get any compensation, he added. "It is almost a non-starter unless the whole thing shuts down for a week."

P&O later said it was considering whether it could use the Belgian port of Ostend as an alternative if Calais fell victim to further blockades. It sent its ferry Pride of Dover to the port today for berthing trials. A P&O spokesman said: "Ostend is not a port we normally use and we have no normal services running there but the port authority has accepted our request to try and see whether our ships will fit their facilities.

"We are thinking that if the Calais blockade continues after this morning's suspension then Ostend could be a very useful backstop to enable our services to continue running into Europe from Dover�"

"If the ship does fit and the blockades resume again, we at least have a potential option for keeping services running into Europe. It's not an ideal option because it takes about 90 minutes from Dover to Calais as opposed to between three-and-a-half and four hours to Ostend."

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